The Angel of Death and Sacrifice
by SerpentSoul016
Summary: A mysterious girl. Dark, but beautiful nonetheless. She must kill the one who has wronged her; a war for revenge that will inevitably end in one's death. However, she didn't expect to fall in love with the one who saved her life, so many years ago. . .


Hey, so yeah, I wrote this story quite a while ago and have just decided to upload it now. It's pretty cool I guess, with the angst and dark side of romance that the show Naruto so lacks LOL :)

But yep, I thank you for choosing to read this, and any reviews would be greatly appreciated. ^_^ Oh, and the theme for the first part (up to the "12 years later") is Sadness and Sorrow from the Naruto OST, and the theme for the remaining is Lux Aetera by Carl Mansell, from the Requiem for a Dream OST.

* * *

Sayuri was born on January 16 in the deep of winter. The wind howled outside her mother's home, bringing with it snow and icy chills. She was born much like any normal child in the village of Konoha. Inside, her exhausted mother held her lovingly and gazed, thoroughly transfixed, at her newborn daughter's hypnotic and brilliant deep blue snake eyes. Tanaka Anatsuni was unaware of the legend that a child born with snake eyes was destined to become one of the greatest and most powerful shinobi of their time. However, Ochigo Anatsuni was well aware of this legend and was an obsessive seeker of power.

As he took his newly acquired daughter into his anticipating arms, he was shocked to discover that she bore the Legend's Mark. His unusual white hair swayed as he shook his head and laughed. Throughout all of his immortality, this was his only child, and she was already fated to become infinitely more powerful than he. His mouth twitched into a smirk as he thought of the upcoming years, and what he would do to destroy his newly found competition.

~12 years later~

January 16, Midnight

The entirety of the Anatsuni clan had gathered in Tanaka's home in celebration of the 12th anniversary of Sayuri's birth. The celebration had lasted well into the darkness of night, but no one had seemed to notice. In fact, some clan members failed to notice anything of significance at all, due to the case of Saki having been emptied. Though the clan was the most powerful and respected family in all of Konoha, they preferred to conduct their celebrations privately, only inviting those within the family.

About two hours prior, Ochigo had excused himself from the party, explaining he had work to do, and closed himself in his study, not yet returned. As the family celebrated, bearing the hooded black cloaks with the Anatsuni clan's emblem emblazoned in gold on the back, they began to wonder where Ochigo had gone.

Now aware of their surroundings, they began to hear a faint crackling, and the distant screams of people who could only be burning alive. Panic began to infect the family as they realized something was terribly wrong. Something sinister was present, though no one had realized it until now. The front door burst open and a rush of heat and sound filled the room as if something had been suppressing it, something that did not want them to know the horror that was unfolding just beyond their seemingly safe home.

Ochigo Anatsuni, the most powerful and intelligent member of the clan, stood in the doorway, set in shadows against the background of fire, smoke, and burning bodies that he alone had created. The family could only watch in horror as Ochigo immobilized them with a single movement of his long fingers, and positioned each of them in a line against the hallway wall in such a way that suggested they were being crucified. Only Sayuri was spared from the effect, and watched as her own father tore away the most recognized symbol of respect, the Anatsuni cloak, with the airs that it was something diseased that he was eager to be rid of. He carried with him the most legendary and notorious pair of swords ever forged, created with the souls of the damned, the Kusanagi.

Walking toward Sayuri with the same cocky smirk he wore when he first discovered that she bore the Legend's Mark, he unsheathed one of the cursed swords. She closed her eyes and waited the blow that would surely kill her, knowing that the complete and utter torture a mere scratch by the sword would procure would bring about her absolute destruction. The Kusanagi forced the victim to relive the most painful moments of their lives while slowly devouring the body in a black fire that would only end once it had reached the heart. The Kusanagi, the only being in existence that could destroy an immortal, was the only way to stop her eternal father. However, Sayuri could now feel the heat created by the sword's ignited blade, knowing that the dawn of death would soon consume her, and all would be lost.

Sayuri opened her eyes for the briefest of moments, trying to discover the reason as to why she could feel no pain, when she realized that Ochigo had put the evil sword in her own hands, and was holding it there, watching the emotions flit through her eyes with mocking amusement. Suddenly, he was behind her, the second of the Kusanagi placed across her throat as if he was threatening to kill her. His eyes wild and crazed, he forced her forward and positioned her in front of the first clan member who was suspended against the wall.

Quietly, Ochigo whispered to her, "Your clan's life or yours? Which shall I take?"

Sayuri's eyes widened in horror as she realized what Ochigo was now forcing her to do to her silenced and immobilized family. Tears brimmed in her deep blue eyes, giving them the appearance of an ocean, while she looked up at the face of her own mother, Tanaka. Ignited sword still in hand with a blade still pressed against her throat, she made her decision. The tension of the situation, the looming threat behind her, and the knowledge that there would be no salvation for her family turned her will against her. A single tear ran down her cheek as she plunged the flaming blade into her own mother's heart.

Sayuri was forced to watch as the black fire spread from the wound with the likeness of ink spreading from a spilt inkwell. Her mother could not speak or move, but her eyes told the story of the agony she was enduring. Sayuri looked into her mother's eyes for an instant and felt the same torture, though no blade had penetrated her. Sayuri bit her lip in an attempt to keep her tears at bay, causing red blood to spill from the wound and slide down her pale face. She was determined to show no weakness to her father as she would not have him enjoy her pain any longer.

Moving her to the next family member on the wall, Sayuri's father urged her forward, noticing the eyes of Tanaka, his own wife, lose their light. The bearer of his only child had gone, and he was now her only guardian. Taking amusement from this, Ochigo smiled. Tanaka would never have been any competition for him, but she would have been an obstacle when he planned to destroy Sayuri. Coming back to the situation at hand, Ochigo was surprised to realize that Sayuri had already sliced the sword into her fellow clan member. Holding the blade to her throat, he could sense her complete torture at what she was being forced to do.

"She is attempting to be strong, to defy me," Ochigo thought. "No matter. She will succumb to the pain in time."

Moving down the line, each moment seemingly endless, the knife was repeatedly thrust into the hearts of the clan, the blade becoming bloodier with every soul taken. Sayuri had become numb, without feeling, having the sensation of being there, but at the same time in a completely different place. Every splatter of blood that hit her face, every movement of the hot Kusanagi, no longer existed. She was gone.

Finally reaching the last of the fourteen Anatsuni members lining the walls, Sayuri executed the final stab into the heart of her faceless family member, feeling the last splatter of hot, thick liquid strike her face. Slowly recovering from her daze, she realized that the nightmare was over. The only clan members who remained alive were her and her father. Expecting to have her throat sliced by the lingering blade, she was surprised to find herself shoved to the floor. The ignited sword was gone from her hands, though she had not recollection of ever having it taken away. Suddenly, her father was upon her, shoving her cloak violently out of his way as he attempted to expose the length of her back. Too weak to retaliate, Sayuri could only lie in waiting of the gruesome death that awaited her.

The bloodied Kusanagi in his hands, the pale flesh of his only daughter beneath him, Ochigo smiled one final time before plunging the flaming blade through his own heart.

He whispered his final words, "I sacrifice my eternal soul for her immortality."

He then tore the blade from his body and ran it down his daughter's spine, laughing as the wound in his chest healed instantly. He would only have one final chance to live, and once he did die, he would become nothing, lost to the world and insignificant. Nevertheless, this was his sacrifice.

The flames of the Kusanagi were immediately absorbed into Sayuri's body, creating a black mark that extended down her back where the souls contained in the sword had entered. The wound was healed instantly, displaying her newly acquired immortality.

Without a soul, but still a living body, Ochigo admired his accomplishment, raising himself off his only child without a word to her. He stepped into the doorway of his former home, carelessly tossing the pair of Kusanagi to where Sayuri lay, motionless. With one final glance behind him at the life he had left behind, he placed his elegant hand against the doorframe and invoked flames to burst, stepping out into the desolate streets of the village he had destroyed. The home of the Anatsuni clan, the only building left untouched, was now burning to the ground as had all the others.

Turning away, Ochigo walked through the streets of the village he once knew, stepping over the carcasses of the dead on his journey to reborn power.

* * *

His energy was surging through her, she could feel it. That one moment of complete misery she had felt when the sword had cut her, the moment when she felt she wanted to die, had ended almost instantaneously. She had expected to die under her father's hand, but he had spared her. However, she knew that this immortality was more a curse than a blessing. Her father was selfish, hungry for power, and he would never allow her to become more powerful than he.

Lying in the center of the burning room, flames casting sinister shadows over the vigilant bodies still suspended on the wall like so many reminders of the tragedy and betrayal that had befallen the clan, Sayuri began to feel the strength return to her. Lifting herself off the floor, she staggered across the only home she ever knew and escaped out into nothing. The empty shells of houses and burnt cadavers were all that was left. There was no sign of life, or her father. Blood running down her chin from her mouth, she limped down the streets of the village she had once loved, searching for nothing in particular, but feeling that she must escape from the hell that would now become the final resting place for the entirety of her family.

As she turned a corner, stepping onto yet another deserted street, she could see him. The shocking white hair that she never expected to feel the uttermost hatred for awaited her. He was leaving, she realized. He was just going to walk away from the village he had eliminated and all the lives he had destroyed.

Sayuri gathered the last of the strength left to her, and ran. She ran faster than she had ever run in her life. She ran for the sake of the fourteen dead loved ones that were now burning, and for the hundreds of dead who now lay abandoned on the road, forgotten. Just as Ochigo would now forget her and the indescribable pain that the wound he had inflicted upon her caused. The wound that she knew would never heal.

Racing down the remnants of the road, hot tears burning her eyes and blurring her vision, not caring whether she survived, Sayuri chased the blur of white among the red and black. She ran until she could no longer distinguish the colors, racing blindly into the night towards her father, not wanting him to escape without feeling the torture that all the village's lost souls had endured.

The Kusanagi swords at her side, she prepared to attack. A safe distance from him, she leapt. She displayed great precision despite her blindness, and would have caused a remarkable amount of damage with the hatred she had accumulated. However, Ochigo was experienced and, laughter evident in his eyes as he watched the hatred in his own daughter's, landed a direct punch to the left side of her face. The action contained such brutality that the impact sent Sayuri flying back the way she had come, eventually touching the ground and sliding the remaining length of road until she reached a stop. Then she understood.

"The reason he gave me immortality and gave up his soul, it was to ensure that I would suffer for eternity, always in remembrance of this night . . . the night I massacred my entire family," Sayuri thought.

She could once again taste blood on her tongue, knowing the bitter truth of her father's actions.

"He expected me to take my own life. That is why he left the Kusanagi behind. He wanted to procure amusement from my agony, from my internal dispute." Sayuri thought. "I shall not give him any further pleasure out of the destruction of Konoha. On my eternal soul, I vow to kill him. As of now, he is no longer my father."

Darkness was quickly overwhelming her, the impact of the punch proving too much. It choked out the bright flames and crackling, the heavy scent of burning flesh. She was slipping away, and dismissed it as her imagination as the final image she saw before losing consciousness was a pair of brilliant green snake eyes, much like her own.


End file.
